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No change for Foxconn workers

31 May, 2012New report of SACOM makes evident that nothing changed in the bitter situation with violations of workers' rights at Foxconn, major supplier of Apple Inc.

GLOBAL: On May 31, the Hong Kong labour rights organization Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) released a new report "Sweatshops are good for Apple and Foxconn, but not for workers".

The report is an answer to a recent remark by Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn, who during his visit to Taiwan late in April addressed Chinese workers with a rhetoric question "'What's wrong with sweatshops?" and later commented on sweatshops as a normal way of working as long as it is in line with laws.

The report of SACOM, member of the GoodElectronics Network which is supported by the IMF, is based on a series of interviews with 170 workers in Zhengzhou and Shenzhen zone that were carried out between March and May 2012. The interviews showed there were no changes at the work floor and that "labour rights violations remain the norm in the Foxconn factories", reads the report.

Despite earlier affiliation of Foxconn to U.S. based Fair Labor Association (FLA), which conducted high-profile research and issued a subsequent investigation report with remedial measures to improve the situation at Foxconn, among others SACOM comes to the following conclusions:

  • Workers are not aware of the FLA report or the suggested remedial actions
  • Workers are denied freedom of speech
  • Workers are denied freedom of association
  • Overtime is subjected to the customers' needs and sometimes reached 60-80 hours/month
  • Inhuman treatment is still widespread, including humiliating disciplinary measures such as forcing workers to write and read out 'confession letters' and to clean toilets
  • Unsafe working environment and inadequate training for workers on health and safety

Follow the link to read the full report "Sweatshops are good for Apple and Foxconn, but not for workers": http://sacom.hk/archives/947